It’s Time to Abandon the Ill-Fated Subway Project : With the sinkage problems and unsettled lawsuits, it is irresponsible of the MTA and elected officials to continue to throw money down the hole.

City, county, state and federal officials have all influenced the decision to bring subways to Los Angeles--a decision which, it is increasingly obvious, was the wrong one.

Former Mayor Tom Bradley hand-picked the present Metropolitan Transit Authority chief executive officer, Franklin White, and transported him from New York because of White’s dedication to subway technology and his experience in heading the transit authority in New York.

Unfortunately for White, Bradley and other subway buffs, the keys to a successful subway system are providing competent tunneling technology and adopting a route and system that will be used by the general populace at a reasonable cost. As of this date, the MTA has proven only that the technology for tunneling a subway in Los Angeles is not there, and the Federal Transit Authority is again reviewing its role in providing nearlyhalf the funding for this subway.

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After a number of tunneling work stoppages because of sinking in the streets of Hollywood and North Hollywood, it is time for the MTA and our elected officials to abandon this costly and dangerous project. They should fill up the hole, repair the streets and admit their mistake.

This project has been haunted by whistle-blower lawsuits, costly over-runs, questionable worker safety and inferior workmanship from the beginning through completion of the segment from Downtown to the Westlake district in the mid-city (a distance of only about four miles).

Even when Hollywood business and resident representatives warned the Los Angeles City Council that the problems of the sinking of Hollywood Boulevard had not been resolved and requested that the council cease future tunneling until a qualified analyst outside of the MTA report to the council and not the MTA, the council prematurely approved the resumption of the tunneling.

MTA officials sought out soil experts to tell them what they wanted to hear. But other soil experts consistently warned those of us who were wary of subway tunneling that the water tables in Hollywood and North Hollywood were not conducive to this type of excavation.

Besides being the object of nationwide ridicule, the FTA has already acknowledged that the Los Angeles subway has already become the most expensive rail project in the United States--all for four finished miles of subway!

As far back as 1990, San Fernando Valley voters overwhelmingly opposed a subway through the Valley and instead supported a monorail along the Ventura Freeway.

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To continue subway tunneling, given all the sinkage problems and unsettled lawsuits, is an irresponsible action by our elected officials and a disservice to the taxpayers and residents of Los Angeles.

The solution is not simple. The initial step in restoring public confidence is to abandon this failed technology.

The second step would be to free those state transportation funds that were allocated for freeway repair and immediately begin the work of reinforcing those sections of freeway that were identified to be earthquake-unsafe before the next major earthquake hits Los Angeles. Once these freeway repairs are completed, the fears of a monorail system along the Ventura Freeway will be abated.

No one enjoys admitting they were wrong, especially in public. But, before the federal government withdraws all future funds for transportation needs in Los Angeles, our elected officials must act responsibly and find a way to abandon this ill-fated project and still save face. While it is too late for some businesses along Hollywood Boulevard and some property owners in North Hollywood, the future of rapid transportation in our city is at stake.

City Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg has expressed “no confidence at this point in the MTA or its contractors,” which is a beginning. Until the mayor and full council act out of a long-overdue fiscal and moral responsibility, we will keep pouring money into the bottomless hole in the ground.